Christmas Wrap-up

Christmas is over. Part of me is really glad to have it over and part of me is kind of sad that it is. I'm glad that the craziness is done but I really enjoy all of the running around and especially the season of giving and doing nice things for others. I just wish that this feeling would continue for the rest of the year! We had a great Christmas, really quite relaxing which was nice. We had our Banta family party on the 23rd so that left Christmas Eve with just our little family. We had our traditional breakfast with friends at Cracker Barrell, and then later had a great time playing games and watching Christmas movies. Ken's favorite movie is "It's a Wonderful Life." We watch it every Christmas Eve or Christmas day and it makes us cry everytime. I really do have a wonderful life. We are so blessed to have a wonderful family and friends and to have everything we have every dreamed or wished for. The kids are great and I couldn't be happier. Kaitlyn was thrilled to get a new stereo for her car, lots of clothes and the best surprise for her was a ticket to Wicked! (Mom is excited too:)) McKay loves his new Rockband 2 game and hasn't stopped playing it for 4 days! I think he has a future! He was also surprised with a 4 game Jazz Ticket package. Needless to say, he was thrilled! Lexi loves her new Barbie house and accessories and all of her new Webkinz. I am very excited with my new camera stuff (a new lense, flash and camera bag big enough for all of my stuff ) and a Willow Tree Nativity. Thanks Santa! Ken got a new wedding band and a print for our office. Now for the rest of the week we are just going to relax and enjoy our time off. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and enjoy the rest of the season....it will be over before we know it!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends! I hope that this holiday season brings you all the joy and happiness that you deserve!!!

It's Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Christmas!!!

Ok, so I know I am a horrible blogger...but I just changed my layout so I feel better. I will add more pics later..I promise. I have been sitting at my desk for 3 hours filling out Christmas cards! I am done though and I just need to put on the stamps!!! I really hate doing cards but I love getting them so I do it anyway. I am finished with my shopping almost and haven't wrapped one present! Hopefully tomorrow night I can hide away and finish up s I can relax for a while. I LOVE this time of year and I love the hustle bustle of the season! It is just so much fun, even though it is chaotic!! I guess I love chaos:)

One Reason I Love Conference Week!!

Ok, so I really do love to listen to conference! I love the messages we hear from the leaders and the council that we are given. I have to confess, however, that there is another reason that I love conference week! It is the semi-annual Memories scrapbook warehouse sale!!! I have an addiction, it is true. I LOVE to buy scrapbook supplies! I used to love to scrapbook but now I just take pictures and collect supplies (who has time to sit and scrapbook??) I always go and I always buy! The sale runs Wed-Friday the week before conference weekend. It is a tradition of mine that I love. I really don't need anymore but I can't resist! Ok, so this looks like a lot of stuff but when I went (which was the last hour of the sale) and everything was BOGO! I couldn't resist! So I bought a bunch of cute stuff for my sister and called her and told her that I had her Christmas present already! I got rub-ons, ribbon, embelishments, stamps, albums, storage items etc. I got all of it for $75....not bad since if I would buy it full price at Roberts it would be at least $350! Anyway...this is one of my hobbies and I love it! If any of you need some cute stuff, come on over, I'd love to share (since there is NO WAY I will ever use it all!!!)

Trying Again:)

Ok, I am going to try this again and add some more pics of my other children..yes I have 2 more kids, it just seems like I am always posting pictures of Kaitlyn. Maybe that's because she is involved in so much that I take lots of her lately. McKay and Lexi are really cute too:) McKay was just selected last week to be a 6th grade peer leader. That means he gets to help with school activities and show new kids around the school. I think it is kind of like a student body officer except he was selected by the teachers instead of being voted in. He is doing AWESOME at school (straight As) and is so good about getting all of his homework done without being asked. Now if I could just get him to clean his room as diligently as he is about homework. Lexi is on a comp team for dance again this year and loves it. She is still into Hannan Montana anything and knows the words to every song she has ever sung. I hope Miley Cyrus comes back to Utah in concert! Lexi has really developed a love for reading and is reading all of the time. She is such a fun kid to have around! Friends are really important to her and she is always planning "late night" activities for her and her friends. It is a riot to have them around and watch them be so girly! Ok, enough about my cute kids!

Blogging Loser continued

Ok, so now it is confirmed that I am the blogging loser. I don't know how to add more pictures on my other post so I am adding another post....it won't let me add more pictures!!! I don't know what is up. So I'll end this dumb post and try again later (hopefully not 3 months from now!)

I am a blogging loser!

I have decided that I am a blogging loser. I really don't enjoy blogging on my own blog, I just like reading everyone elses blogs. But since I haven't posted for like 3 months, I decided to at least post some pics of some activities this summer. We finshed the yard the first part of July and had a fun summer with grass instead of dirt! We really didn't do a lot this summer except let the kids play with friends and hang out. I had lots of good intentions to get my scrapbooks all organized and I think I only did like 4 pages all summer. But we had a busy summer nevertheless. I'll try to give a brief update on each of the kids. Kaitlyn had a very busy summer! She went to EFY the week after we came back from Georgia. She also went to Girl's camp and Youth conference. She spent lots of time cheering and has had a blast. She went to cheer camp and had an absolute riot! We had team pictures taken at Hazen this summer.....really pricy pictures but they did hair and make-up for all of the girls and did a real "photo shoot". Kaitlyn's pictures turned out so good that I had to buy the blasted CD with all of them. I have included a few of them for you all to see.

McKay was seriously the party man this summer. He had more sleep overs and "late nights" than I can count. There was always at least one or two boys here this summer hanging out. I am so grateful for his good friends! He has got some great ones! McKay played baseball this summer and went to Webelos camp. He was excited for 6th grade and is loving it so far. He was selected to be a peer leader for 6th grade and is loving school.